It’s one of the most controversial films of the year, and the year has barely started. Lauded by some and pilloried by others, Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s star-studded odyssey through early Hollywood has confounded critics and audiences alike. Now you can see what all the fuss is about for yourself, as Babylon is in cinemas now.
A decadent, druggy, occasionally occult trawl through the transition from silent film to talkies, Babylon follows a number of desperate wannabes, rising stars, fading icons, money-maskers, movers and shakers as they wheel, deal, steal, occasionally fall in love and frequently die on the dusty but glamourous streets of early 20th century Los Angeles.
Margot Robbie’s erratic ingenue dreams of stardom and has the sheer wattage to achieve it, but not the stability to maintain it. Brad Pitt’s ageing silent movie icon rages against the dying of the light as technology and society move beyond him. Diego Calva’s ambitious immigrant dreams of power in the studio system but will risk it all for love, while Jean Smart’s gossip columnist keeps a merciless record of every rising talent and falling has-been. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Chazelle shoots the whole thing in a dizzying, kaleidoscopic style, taking us from debauched bacchanals to boardroom power plays, dry desert backwaters and palatial mansions, and even deep below the streets of LA where Tobey Maguire’s saturnine gangster pulls the secret levers of power in a performance worthy of a Kenneth Anger joint. It’s in your face and exhilarating, confounding, and frequently offensive—to the senses if not to the morals.
And yet there’s nothing else quite like it out there right now. It’s a big swing in a cinematic landscape packed with safe bets, so if you’ve grown jaded with what 21st century Hollywood has to offer, take to trip to Babylon to see how the OGs did it back in the day.
